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Listen to Chris Broussard count down his rankings of the top 5 most surprising champions in NBA Finals history.
5. 2019 Toronto Raptors
“The year before they had been swept by LeBron James. Dwane Casey was fired, Nick Nurse was a first-year coach, he comes in, and they add Kawhi Leonard. That was a boost getting Kawhi, but still, not a ton of people expected them to go through Philadelphia with Joel Embiid, and then Milwaukee with Giannis emerging. But Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson went down, and then the Toronto Raptors were the last team standing.”
4. 1977 Portland Trailblazers
“Get this, the year before they 37-45. They had Bill Walton, he missed a bunch of games as he usually did, but he played 51 games that year and still only won 37 games. They added Maurice Lucas from the ABA. This was the first year of the NBA/ABA merger, but Lucas, he had played two years in the ABA, made an All-Star team, but only averaged 15 and 11 in the ABA, so you didn’t think he was going to lead a team to a championship. They upset the Philadelphia 76ers of ‘Dr. J’ during Julius Erving’s first year in the NBA as well. They were up 2-0 and lost the last four games to the Trailblazers as Bill Walton and Maurice Lucas led them to the title.”
Check out the FULL rankings in the video above.
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